Information for TRS offer-holders

Congratulations on your offer to study at King's! We look forward to welcoming you to the College in October. The following information may be useful in helping you think about possible choices for your first year papers, and once you have made your choices, it will certainly be useful in terms of perpearation for the course.

Paper 1: Languages

As you'll be aware, you have to take a scriptural language paper in your first year, in addition to four other papers. Please email the Director of Studies, Dr Stephen Cherry (sc910@cam.ac.uk), when you are ready to start thinking about your language choice. Once you have decided which language you wish to take, it would really help if you culd get hold of the relevant text book, and begin to work through it systematically. The further you get before you arrive, the easier you will find it when you're here.

The other papers

As well as the language paper, you have to choose four other papers, at least one of which must be either Paper 2 or Paper 3. You are entirely free to choose the papers you'd like to study otherwise. Some sort of rough guideline could be that if you're interested above all in studying Christian theology, then obviously you would do best to choose from papers 2,3,4,5 and 8, whereas a strong interest in religious studies would suggest, say, papers 2,3,6,7 and 8.

Once you have decided what paper choices you are likely to make, you should begin some introductory reading (in addition to the language, that is). Again, the more you can do before you arrive, the easier you will find it to settle in once you're here. Degree level work is quite a change in gear from A level and equivalent qualifications, and one of the things that marks the difference is the amount of self-regulated reading that you're required to do here. So it does make sense to begin to get into the rhythm of reading and note-taking again.

General Books on Biblical Interpretation

Grant, R. M. & Tracy, D. A., Short History of the Interpretation of Scripture (1984)